Android Netbook From Asus

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The newest incarnation of the pioneering Eee PC range of netbooks from Asus may be Android powered.  According to Darius Chang on the asia.cnet.com's "Crave" blog, Asus was demonstrating an Eee PC running Android, powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset, at the Computex tradeshow in Taiwan.

Earlier this year, some VentureBeat writers got Android working on an Eee PC.  Their prediction was that we'd see Android on netbooks by 2010.  They're pretty close (who knows when Asus's Android Eee will officially ship, but late 2009 seems like a nice conservative guess, given it being spotted in the wild).

Asus' support for Android over Windows 7, is interesting and could be motivated by any number of factors.  The prime ones of interest for me are:

• Android is open source, no more waiting on patches to be released behind closed doors,
• catches the enthusiasts eye, causing their wallets to spontaneously open,
• emphasises innovation in the Asus brand,
• an attempt to shift the netbook's perception from 'tiny laptop', to 'mobile appliance'.

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